1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to attachment devices that can easily engage and disengage panels, e.g., roof panels, front header panels and other vehicle body panels. More particularly, the present invention relates to attachment devices that can be reversibly attached to the vehicle panel in order to secure accessory members, such as a sun visor holder, to the vehicle panel. These attachment devices also may be combined with accessory members or accessory member units, e.g., a sun visor holder unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several accessory members are typically attached to a vehicle body panel, such as a sun visor holder that is adapted to releasably receive and rotatably hold a support arm of a sun visor. Such sun visor holders have been attached to the vehicle body panel using known attachment devices, such as screws, engagement clips or other such fasteners.
If a screw is used to reversibly attach the sun visor holder to a metal vehicle body, the screw fastening operation requires special tools, and as a result, requires time consuming and labor intensive work. On the other hand, using a clip to attach the sun visor holder to the vehicle body permits easy attachment, because the clip can be easily and advantageously secured to the body panel by simply inserting and snap fitting the clip into an attachment or mounting hole formed in the panel. However, it is usually difficult to remove known clips from the attachment hole after the clip has engaged the attachment hole. As a result, time consuming and labor intensive work is required to remove the sun visor holder from the panel. In fact, if it is impossible to access the engaged clip from an outer or visible side of the body panel, the engaged clip can not be removed from the attachment hole.
It is, accordingly, one object of the present teachings to teach improved attachment devices that overcome one or more problems of the known attaching devices. For example, in one embodiment of the present teachings, attachment devices are taught that can be easily attached to or removed from a panel.
In another embodiment of the present teachings, a sun visor holder may be integrally formed with such improved attachment devices.
In another aspect of the present teachings, attachment devices may be adapted to attach an accessory member (portion) to a panel and may include an attachment member or engaging means that may elastically engage an attachment or mounting hole formed in the panel. A manipulating member or means is preferably connected or coupled to the attachment member or engaging means. The manipulating member preferably actuates the attachment member or engaging means in order to disengage or remove the attachment device from the mounting hole. As a result, the accessory member can be easily attached to the vehicle panel by simply pressing the attachment member or engagement means into the mounting hole. In addition, the accessory member can be easily disengaged from the vehicle panel by simply operating the manipulating member.
Preferably, the engaging means and the manipulating means are integrally formed from a resin material. Thus, a single part can be manufactured, for example by injection molding, and folded in order to form the present attachment devices.
Such attachment devices can be attached to a vehicle panel in one simple operation by pressing the engaging means into the mounting hole of the vehicle panel. Also, the attachment devices can be removed from the vehicle panel in one simple operation by operating the manipulating member or means.
Thus, the present attachment devices are an improvement over known attachment devices, because the present attachment devices can be easily and quickly attached to and detached from the vehicle panel. In particular, the present attachment devices can minimize manual labor required to install or remove the vehicle accessory, e.g., a sun visor holder.
Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be readily understood after reading the following detailed description together with the accompanying drawings and the claims.